Sealed chambers housing electronic components which have to be cooled, for example, are common. In electronic cameras, for example, Charge-coupled Devices (CCDs) are maintained in such chambers to reduce noise. Access to such a component requires a significant number of electrical conductors to penetrate the seal leading to leaks in the seal. Of course, as the requisite number of conductors increases, the potential for leaks increases leading too costly yield and repair problems.
Conductors typically have access to a sealed chamber through commercially available connectors which are sealed with glass although such connectors have proven adequate for relatively small numbers of through connections, they are expensive and have given rise to significant leakage problems as the number of conductors increases. For CCD cameras the problem becomes increasingly acute if one considers a modular camera capable of utilizing on e set of electronics to operate many different types of CCDs. Such a modular camera is less expensive to service since repairs can be made without requiring the entire camera to be returned to the manufacturer accepting replacement camera heads without returning the camera to the manufacturer and without requiring removal and replacement of components. The reason for the problem is that CCDs are considerably different from one another requiring different pin configurations. Thus, a modular camera system which could accept a replacement camera head would have to have dozens of conductors penetrate the sealed chamber, a requirement which could not be met competitively by present glass sealed connectors.